Sunday, February 23, 2014

Svendborg Maersk

The Svendborg Maersk Super Container ship ran into hurricane-force winds and waves after leaving the Port of Rotterdam , Netherlands on its way to Sri Lanka. The Svendborg lost 520 containers into the ocean and was forced to stop for repairs in Malaga, Spain.

A friend of mine who served in the Coast Guard told me that cointainer ships destined for the US are inspected in Rotterdam and not reinspected upon entering port in the US. He also said that Coast Guard inspectors typically will serve the rest of their career in Rotterdam because of the relationships they form with local authorities.

This sounded like the Rotterdam situation was a recipe for corruption. So, it will be interesting to see if any contraband washes up on shore that can be traced to the Svendborg.

There may be as many as 5-6 million containers in transport each day. Surprisingly, container ships only loose from between 2,000-10,000 containers each year. After the lose of one container In 2006, thousands of bags of Doritoes washed up on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. In 1992 a canister broke apart carrying 29,000 plastic ducks and frogs which have been washing up on shores from Scotland to Japan ever since.